


The Shape of Things That Haven't Happened Yet

by nixwilliams



Category: Top Gear (UK) RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-20
Updated: 2010-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24524041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nixwilliams/pseuds/nixwilliams
Summary: No one is entirely sure how Stigs generate, but scholars have forwarded theories that they either grow like plants, or that they develop like insects. There is some speculation that seeds or larvae were launched from a distant galaxy, flung through space on the desperate hope of a dying race. If this is true, the Stigs' appearance on Earth is a miraculous success, however we must not forget that it is also a near-terminal sentence to heartbreaking isolation for an individual Stig.
Relationships: James May/The Stig
Kudos: 1





	The Shape of Things That Haven't Happened Yet

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was originally published in 2010. I have not watched Top Gear since around that time, so I have no idea what's become of the Stig. The relationship between White Stig and James more suggested than explicit. All links go to the songs on YouTube. The title of this piece comes from the Neil Finn song "Faster Than Light", linked in Side B.
> 
> I find the Stig engaging as a concept, and was pleased when [derryderrydown](/users/derryderrydown/) asked me to write on the topic. As I spent more time thinking about Stigs I decided I wanted to share and elaborate upon some lesser-known theories regarding their possible origin/s. The following combines creative and scholarly writing with a pared-down fanmix.

## Side A: Stig

**1.[Escalation - Daniel Licht](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX989z2vVUM)**

> _(Instrumental)_

The beginning of things: in which a Stig comes to awareness. Pre-physical manifestation, Stigs haunt the sides of highways, appearing as ghostly figures anchored to one place, watching, waiting, wanting. You might have seen one slipping away with the rain off the side of the windscreen as you were driving home, something in the dark that could have been a wisp of bark, a deer, a wallaby - and was gone before you could blink.

**2.[This Deed - Electrelane](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtM6g6Oc9IU)**

> _Diese Tat ist ihnen immer noch ferner, als die fernsten Gestirne, und doch haben sie dieselbe getan! (Hände hoch)!_
> 
> _[Trans: “This deed is as yet further from them than the furthest star, and yet they have done it! (Hands up!)” – Neitzsche]_

No one is entirely sure how Stigs generate, but scholars have forwarded theories that they either grow like plants, or that they develop like insects. There is some speculation that seeds or larvae were launched from a distant galaxy, flung through space on the desperate hope of a dying race. If this is true, the Stigs' appearance on Earth is a miraculous success, however we must not forget that it is also a near-terminal sentence to heartbreaking isolation for an individual Stig.

**3.[Forest Families - The Knife](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqjsjxJQHJc)**

> _Too far away from the city  
>  Some kids left on their own  
>  They said: We have a communist in the family  
>  I had to wear a mask  
>  ...  
>  Music tonight  
>  I just want your music tonight_

Abandoned to their fate, condemned to indefinite incorporeality, a Stig longs to be part of the world around them. Slowly they grow to resent the emotions they cannot feel, the books they cannot read, the songs they cannot hear or sing, the history they do not know, the homes they cannot visit, the food they cannot taste, the kingdom of living things they cannot touch. It’s little wonder that when given the opportunity a Stig (e.g. White Stig) should work systematically through recordings of various music genres, language classes and historical speeches – almost gorging on things denied for so long.

**4.[Hey Man Nice Shot - Filter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9mJ82x_l-E)**

> _They think that your early ending  
>  Was all wrong  
>  For the most part they're right  
>  …  
>  They'd stick it in your face  
>  And let you smell what they consider wrong  
>  That's why I say hey man, nice shot_

Death and rebirth, fire and regeneration. With the physical demise of one Stig, another takes its place: the ‘death’ of Black Stig triggered the process by which White Stig could physically manifest. Who knows how either Stig feels or felt about the situation. Was this primal instinct or one final self-sacrificing act of kindness on the part of Black Stig? Or was that Stig’s ‘disappearance’ self-serving, an indication of resentment towards the human world? In this case, the ‘passing’ from (Black) Stig to (White) Stig can be read as the former forcing the latter to take their place in an unfulfilling and often hostile situation. The middle of things: in which a Stig comes to awareness.

## Side B: Stig and James

**5.[Within You Without You - The Beatles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr54nqD1URA)**

> _We were talking about the space between us all  
>  And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion  
>  Never glimpse the truth  
>  Then it’s far too late when they pass away_

Imagine waking for the first time in the scrap metal graveyard of your life. Hearing half-familiar voices on a muttering television or finding a memory tangled in the dirt like a broken windscreen. Walking between the corpses of commercial kitchens, oil cans and rusted bike frames, trying to find a clue to who these people were (who you are). There’s a flash of it in a rear-view mirror. There’s a hint of it in the smell of petrol.

Perhaps this is the lot of a ‘new’ Stig: they must build an identity in the gaps the ‘old’ Stig left behind. Academics have promoted this hypothesis as a way of explaining the linear similarities and the cultural differences between Stigs. That is to say, the space a Stig must occupy both physically and culturally is to some extent predetermined by the expectations of the world with which it interacts. White Stig, for example, is quite similar in form and function to Black Stig, while the cultural idiosyncrasies of the USA and the prejudices of the British presenters combine to create the so-called ‘Big’ Stig of _Top Gear_ Series 9. A Stig's work is their identity, and vice versa.

**6\. Human Behaviour -[Bjork](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0mRIhK9seg) or [The Decemberists](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXoVX4IJ84E)  
**

> _But, oh, to get involved in the exchange  
>  Of human emotions  
>  Is ever so, ever so satisfying  
>  ...  
>  And there is no map  
>  And a compass wouldn't help at all_

Those who spend a short period of time with a Stig often express feelings of goodwill towards them (see, for instance, the reactions of celebrity guests on _Top Gear_ ), but extended exposure and close contact can leave humans psychologically unsteady. Some have wondered if Stigs reflect and/or amplify human emotions, catching the interlocutor in an exchange that binds human and Stig together. There is some evidence for this in the rumour that James May (one of the presenters of _Top Gear_ ) and White Stig have more than once been found sitting in front of a grand piano in total silence. It was reported that the intensity of this human-Stig interaction created an almost physical barrier and that it has taken up to half an hour to break through and catch May’s attention.

Of course this raises several questions: How were they communicating? What were they discussing? What is the symbolism of the grand piano? Perhaps elucidation comes in the form of White Stig’s evident thirst for cultural knowledge and May’s musical background: the practice and theory of music seems the likely subject of their conversation. Indeed, given all evidence to the contrary, it is hard to maintain the generally accepted attitude that a Stig’s exceptional driving talent indicates that cars are their only interest, and that they are both incompetent in and indifferent towards off-track situations. Given the hypothesis regarding the pre-inscription of a Stig’s role in its host culture, is it not also possible that Stigs race cars not (only) because they are expert drivers, but because they have been offered no other option?

**7.[Faster Than Light - Neil Finn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DzXHvto9P0)**

> _If you’re looking for the message, close your eyes  
>  Do you hear what I’m thinking?  
>  Is it how you’ve imagined?  
>  In time you’ll see that some things travel faster than light  
>  In time you’ll recognise that love is larger than life_

A Stig’s physical manifestation begins with an immediate unravelling of potential. To be here, in this time, in this place... their possible future is already mapped out: these are the oceans you might encounter, these are the mountains. Keep them in mind as you unspool in lazy loops across the tarmac, when you tilt your head towards the tail end of a symphony, when you notice the glint of a distant sun in a man’s eye. Keep them in mind when the taste of escape is in the air, the scent of warmth is on his skin, the tempo of promises in his breath. Keep them in mind.

This landscape has been surveyed before, but where to stop and rest, where to cup your hands in the water, where to lie on your back and witness the night sky – these are _your_ choices.

**8.[Hello Earth - Kate Bush](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gtFe7ZXb1s)**

> _I get out of my car  
>  Step into the night  
>  And look up at the sky  
>  And there's something bright  
>  Travelling fast  
>  Just look at it go_

It mildly surprising that the ‘natural’ affinity of Stigs with speed and vehicle propulsion is yet to be questioned or explored. Is their recklessness a formal replaying of the act of wild chance that sent them tumbling through the universe to Earth? Is it an instinctual desire to return to a state of immateriality, to experience pure speed, or the extremity of sound? Where are they going? And who will travel with them?

We all dream of stories, invent origins and reasons, create identities. We wilfully misunderstand ourselves, raise curtains in our minds, and bury knowledge deep in sleepy history. How else can we understand our existence? How can we say we love a wisp of star stuff: ephemeral, blown here by coincidence, a tiny pause in the engulfing chaos of the universe? Perhaps it is because we crave connection, and through our desire to touch we first compose a position from which to reach, then something at which to aim. We do it because we are made, we become, through the act of reaching.

Imagine loving an ephemeral being. Imagine waking for the first time.

> _Tiefer, tiefer._  
>  _Irgendwo in der Tiefe_  
>  _Gibt es ein licht_
> 
> _[Trans: Deeper, deeper_  
>  _Somewhere in the depths_  
>  _There is a light]_


End file.
